Latest Environmental News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

34 mins ago

7 Boston EPA staffers placed on leave for work on environmental justice and DEI

The Boston staffers are part of a nationwide sweep of EPA offices that put 168 workers on administrative leave this week. It follows President Trump’s executive actions calling for an end to equity, diversity and environmental justice programs.

The Boston Skyline, seen from the Harbor Islands. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

A key Atlantic Ocean current might be more stable than we thought, new study finds

Environment

10 hours ago

A stormwater pipe discharges into Alewife Brook, a tributary of the Mystic River. The Mystic River Watershed Association is one of the Massachusetts nonprofits caught in the federal funding freeze. (Robin Lubbuck/WBUR)

‘Never in our wildest dreams’: Mass. environmental projects stall amid federal funding confusion

Environment

Feb 6, 2025

Pipes destined for a networked geothermal project in Framingham, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Gas utility cancels networked geothermal pilot in Lowell

Environment

Feb 6, 2025

Support the news

PFAS Series

PFAS expert tips: How to reduce your exposure to harmful ‘forever chemicals’

Health

05:06Feb 13, 2023

Littleton Electric Light and Water Department workers inside a new water treatment facility that will remove PFAS chemical compounds from the water supply. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Toxic 'forever chemicals' force Mass. towns to face 'true cost of water'

Environment

04:52Feb 14, 2023

Town Administrator Denise Dembkoski points out on a map the origin of the PFAS contamination at the old fire station across the street from town offices. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Private well owners stuck with costs to treat 'forever chemicals'

Environment

05:21Feb 15, 2023

Tracing the path of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ inside the body

Health

05:41Feb 16, 2023

Climate Reality

At WBUR, we cover the climate conversation in ways that spur new ideas, provide a place for debate and arm our community in Massachusetts and beyond with information and inspiration...

Environment

Power Shift: The Future of Offshore Wind

Technicians of the Block Island Wind Farm Support Team repair a crack in the blade of one of the wind turbines. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

We asked big questions about the offshore wind industry. Here’s what we uncovered

Environment

Oct 15, 2021

Offshore wind is America's new industry. Who will build it?

Environment

06:41Oct 13, 2021

Fisherman Jamey McGroarty hurls a dogfish overboard to begin separating the squid from the bycatch from his haul. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

As turbines rise, small-scale fishermen have the most to lose

Environment

06:44Oct 14, 2021

The five turbines of the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Big Oil wants to be Big Wind. Can fossil fuel companies be trusted?

Environment

06:13Oct 15, 2021

More Environmental News

A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (Andre Muggiati/AP)

A luxury house is close to tumbling into Cape Cod Bay. Will anyone stop it?

Environment

Feb 5, 2025

Daniel DiDonato, a deliveryman for Heatable, brings heating oil to a home in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

5 ways tariffs on Canada could affect New England energy prices

Local Coverage

Feb 5, 2025

An endangered North Atlantic right whale entangled in fishing rope with a newborn calf in waters near Cumberland Island, Ga. Dec. 2, 2021. (Georgia Department of Natural Resources/NOAA Permit #20556 via AP)

Court restores protections for right whales to prevent entanglement in fishing gear

Environment

Feb 4, 2025

Solar panels on the roof of a building in Amesbury. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Federally funded climate projects in Mass. face uncertainty under Trump

Environment

Feb 3, 2025

Here & Now Climate News

More

Reporters' notebook: How can we be less wasteful?

Here & Now

06:10Jan 31, 2025

How two dumpster divers found love and a living combing through trash

Here & Now

09:56Jan 30, 2025

A worker collects mangos at Shagie farm in in Ismailia, northeastern Egypt. (Amr Nabil/AP)

Why mango farms have become a symbol of climate change

Here & Now

05:34Jan 30, 2025

Anna Perks at a worksite in Boulder, Colorado, where a home is being deconstructed piece by piece instead of demolished. Perks’ company specializes in a method that reuses or recycles as much of the material in a home as possible. (Peter O'Dowd/Here & Now)

Cities forgo wrecking balls and order ‘deconstruction' of old buildings, instead

Here & Now

09:17Jan 29, 2025

On Point Environment Stories

A giant Pacific octopus sticks to the tank glass in the Cold Water Quest exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on Thursday, June 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Jaime Henry-White)

Should we farm octopuses for food?

On Point

46:52Feb 4, 2025

FILE - Wind turbines work at sunset on a wind farm near Del Rio, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a nearly $11 billion investment on Tuesday, May 16, to help bring affordable clean energy to rural communities throughout the country. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

How Texas became America's clean energy leader

On Point

47:00Jan 15, 2025

Roads remain icy following a day of snow on January 17, 2024 in Bartlett, New Hampshire. Republican presidential candidates are criss crossing the state of New Hampshire in freezing weather as the state prepares to host the 2024 Presidential Primary. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

What we lose if snow disappears

On Point

46:24Dec 25, 2024

Boats cruise over the river Main next to the European Central Bank, right, in Frankfurt, Germany, after the sun set Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Can we save the quietest places in the world?

On Point

47:18Sep 10, 2024

A plow rolls down the street as people trudge forward through the snow on Joy Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood on Feb. 9, 2015. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

We're in our 'global weirding' era

Cognoscenti

Some like it hot: Warmer winters mean more rats in Boston

Climate change, especially warming winters, is linked to rising rat populations in cities, according to a new study. It found “significant” increases in rat numbers in places including Washington D.C.,...

Environment

Jan 31, 2025

Standish Shore oysters grown in Duxbury Bay. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

How warmer winter waters are creating new pitfalls for Massachusetts oyster farmers

Massachusetts oyster farmers often pit their harvest in the winter to protect them against ice damage, but climate change is making the practice harder than ever.

Local Coverage

Jan 30, 2025

Wildfire in Canadian Arctic. Photo by Mason Dominico

A third of the Arctic is now a greenhouse gas emitter, Mass. study finds

A third of the Arctic is now emitting climate-changing greenhouse gasses after thousands of years of storing them, according to a new study from the Falmouth-based Woodwell Climate Research Center.

Local Coverage

Jan 30, 2025

A rendering of the proposed underground electrical substation in Kendall Square. (Courtesy of Eversource)

Country's first fully-underground electrical substation breaks ground in Cambridge

The utility Eversource broke ground on a first-in-the-nation, fully underground electrical substation in Cambridge, Mass.

Local Coverage

Jan 29, 2025

White Stadium in Franklin Park, Roxbury. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

As White Stadium demolition begins, Boston residents share frustration at community involvement, cost

Boston residents packed a marathon city council meeting to protest Franklin Park's White Stadium demolition, citing costs, environmental concerns and public access.

Local Coverage

Jan 24, 2025

People shelter from the heat on a shady path in Boston Common. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

For some Boston neighborhoods, heat advisories come too late

Data from climate sensors installed around Boston indicated dangerously high heat and humidity in some places even before official warnings were sent to residents.

Environment

Jan 24, 2025

This image provided by NOAA, shows a North Atlantic right whale in the waters off New England. (NOAA via AP)

Is offshore wind driving whales ‘crazy?’ Science says no

President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting new federal leases for offshore wind projects. He cited the impact offshore wind may have on marine life. “If you’re into whales,”...

Local Coverage

Jan 22, 2025

The proposed factory would have been constructed on the old site of a coal-fired power plant. (Ben Berke/The Public's Radio)

Prysmian abandons plans for offshore wind cable factory in Somerset

The proposed offshore wind cable factory would have created between 200 and 350 manufacturing jobs at the site of an old coal fired power plant in Somerset’s Brayton Point neighborhood....

Local Coverage

Jan 22, 2025